tim dobbs photography

Fuji X-E1 & 18-55mm on the streets of Aberystwyth ……

Last weekend we went to Aberystwyth to pick up Amy for the summer and in between all the carrying/cleaning and throwing out bin bags I managed a walk along the seafront to see where her next terms accommodation will be and took the X-E1 with the new zoom instead of the primes.

It’s very handy to be able to zoom slightly especially if I see a shot and have to get it quick, its not so good when attempting shooting from the hip as I got far more missed shots than I did when I tried it with the 18mm prime.

Click on an image to view larger ……….

“Race for Life” …….

My wife Annette and her sister Bethan both entered the Bridgend “Race for Life” event on sunday and me and the kids all popped along to show support and also document the day.

Here are a selection of the images from the day.

for more info on the “Race for Life”event for Cancer Research uk please check here :

http://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/index.html

Just click on an image to view larger……………

Contact me if anyone featured here would like a copy of the image 🙂

View from the top……. testing Spur Ultraspeed Vario

Amy came home from Uni for a couple of weeks and she fancied a walk up the valley, so as I had just received some new sample film developer from Spur Photochemie http://spur-photo.com/ in Germany I loaded up the OM2n with some ilford FP4 and rated it at 400 iso to test how the developer performed.

The developer in question was Spur Ultraspeed Vario and is used when you want to push or pull your film and keep as much detail and contrast in your negatives possible.

It is a 2 bath dev and this is the 1st time that I have processed this way.

Both mixes were 1+11 when rating FP4 at 400 and was processed 5 minutes for the 1st bath and followed by 15 minutes for the 2nd.

Agitation was 30 sec constant inversions then stand for the remaining 4:30 and the 2nd bath was also 30 sec constant inversions then twice every minute thereafter.

The results were very impressive indeed, the shadow/highlight detail was excellent and the sharpness and contrast were great too.

I will try pulling some FP4 next just to get a comparison and will post the results.

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger…….

Back to shooting some film again……

As its Easter Bank holiday and the weather here has been quite nice for a change I made the most of the time and got out shooting some film again.My camera of choice was the Mamiya 645 with the 80mm f2.8 and a roll of Kodak Ektar 100.The light up in the forestry was changing minute to minute so I didn’t know what the results would be, I was going from 1000sec @ f11 to 60sec @ f2.8 so I was quite happy when I scanned the negs that there was minimal camera shake on the slower ones ( didn’t take my damn tripod)All in all I was pleased with the results, it was nice to just have 15 shots to play with rather than the hundreds I have shot with my new Fuji X-Pro 1 lately.I will be shooting a lot more Ektar in the future I like the sharpness and the colours it gives, may try some portraits next just to see how thay come out.Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger………..

Fuji X-Pro 1 on the street …….

I treated myself to an early 50th birthday present last week …. a Fuji X-Pro 1 along with the xf 18mm f2 and 35mm f1.4.

This post is short and sweet and is just to show my 1st quick attempt at some close street shooting using the 18mm wide open at f2 just as a test.The lens is very sharp even at f2, obviously not the best aperture to be sure of getting the image but as it was an experiment I wasn’t to upset at the missed shots.

I had a few surprised looks as I took the images but I didn’t feel as conspicuous like I do that close with my Dslr.I am shooting Raw and Jpeg at the moment and I must say the Jpegs are really nice, great colour and sharpness and seem to have the added bonus of a little lens correction in camera over the Raw (not drastic but noticeable) which makes a difference with the 18mm.

I will post a lot more in the next blog, I have just tried the 35mm at f1.4 and its gorgeous 🙂

Thanks for looking …….

A bit of Street Shooting for a change ………

A short and sweet blog post today.

Popped into Bridgend on Sunday to get a few things and took the D600 for a change with the idea of shooting some street stuff.There was a few people milling around and I tried some shooting from the hip as well as straight shooting with varying success.

I shot all of these at f8 in Aperture priority with the focus set manually at approx 10-12 ft.I only shot about 30 frames in total and was very pleased that I managed to get this many keepers, not that they are pushing any boundaries in street photography but still they seemed to work, especially when converted to Black & White. Thanks for looking …….

please check out my other blog dedicated to my Film Photography at

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

and also my Flickr stream if you are interested 🙂

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timdobbsphotography/

My Fuji x10 and SilverEfex ………

I had a day off today so as the sun was shining briefly this morning I loaded up my Mamiya 645 with some Fuji Pro 400H and my Fuji x10 and popped out while the sun lasted.

While waiting for the film to dry I decided to run through the shots from the X10, some of which I processed using VSCO film 1 presets and the Fuji 400H setting just to see if the actual processed film was similar. (still waiting for it to dry)

All of these however were processed in Silver-Efex to give a Dark, grungy feel which I really like.Any comments very welcome.

click on an image to view larger………. I also have a Film only blog at …….

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

and Flickr stuff at ……

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timdobbsphotography/

Another roll of colour film for a change ……..

The weather here has been terrible over the last few weeks and getting out with the camera has been difficult.

I loaded my Nikon FM2n with some expired Kodak Colorplus 200 over 3 weeks ago and only managed to finish it yesterday.

The colours that this film produced were very pleasing when scanned and complimented the subject matter, nicely subdued.

I must say that the FM2n is by far my favorite camera to use especially with the 50mm 1.8 its a quality piece of kit.

I am looking to get a Nikkor 35mm f2.8 Ai which in combination with the FM2n would be my everyday film camera. Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger…….

Garw Carnival 2013 & Kodak Portra 400………..

I love my Nikon F4s but as I seem to have collected 50+ cameras over the last 12 months I don’t get to shoot with it very often.

This weekend I decided to load it up with some film and attempt to shoot with it but when I opened the back I realised I had a rewound roll of Kodak Portra 400 sitting in it.

As I have not developed any colour film for a while I was not sure if my C-41 chemistry was shot or not but I thought I would give it a try. (I didn’t even know what was on the film)

To my surprise when the film came out of the tank it was from last years Garw Carnival back in September if I remember correctly and the negs seemed to look ok albeit with a slight yellow cast but after scanning I liked the look so didn’t colour correct them.

Moral of this little story is make sure you remove completed film rolls from your camera and also make a note of what you actually shot on it 🙂

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view Larger…….

Any comments greatly appreciated 🙂

Christmas Eve walk with a YashicaMat and some T-Max 400…….

A short and sweet blog post today.

I borrowed a YashicaMat from a photographer friend a few months back and it seemed to be over exposing all the time, most probably slow shutter speed problems.

To try to compensate for this I set my light meter to iso 800 and shot some kodak T-Max 400.

These are the results….it seemed to work 🙂

Thanks for looking ….